Microneurograpy: Single unit recordings from touch afferents in humans

Rochelle Ackerley (1)

1 NSC - Neurosciences sensorielles et cognitives

The in vivo technique of microneurography allows the recording of peripheral nerve traffic in humans. In touch research, microneurography is used to record from single mechanoreceptive afferents during tactile interactions and their activity can be related to an associated percept. The precise firing of single mechanoreceptive afferents generates sufficient information to allow us to determine differences between a wide range of surfaces. I will present how microneurography works and focus on findings from unmyelinated tactile afferents, C-tactile (CT) afferents. CTs are only found only in hairy skin and are believed to signal affective touch. Their firing has been linked to tactile pleasantness and they are tuned to respond to a slow, gentle caress delivered around human skin temperature, thus play a key role in inter-personal interactions.

Mots clés: microneurography; touch; affective touch; pleasant touch; C-tactile; CT afferents; single unit; human

Domaines: Neurosciences

Rochelle Ackerley. Microneurograpy: Single unit recordings from touch afferents in humans. Research in Touch, Jul 2019, Nottingham, United Kingdom. ⟨hal-02357723⟩